The Primal Hunter

Jake looked at the upgraded skill with a bit of bewilderment.

[Expert Archery (Uncommon)] An Archer’s best friend is the bow in his hand and the arrow in his foe’s heart. You have proven yourself an expert with your chosen weapon and is fast approaching the level of mastering your craft. Adds a small bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength when using a ranged weapon.

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[Archery of Vast Horizons (Rare)] - An Archer’s best friend is the bow in his hand and the arrow in his foe’s heart. Unsatisfied with merely becoming an expert, you have sought beyond mastering common bowmanship, and do not shy away from using magic to enhance your technique. You seek to cross all horizons with your arrows, and your target shall be pierced, no matter the distance, no matter the means. Adds a small bonus to the effect of Agility and Strength when using a ranged weapon. Adds a small damage bonus to all arrows based on distance traveled and Perception.

He was bewildered… was all it took really just to shoot a long distance to get a skill with a weird name? It didn’t just upgrade from ‘expert’ to ‘master’ or something like that. Instead, it changed direction.

Not that he was complaining. The skill was objectively better in every way as it added a damage bonus based on distance and perception. It also said damage bonus and not that it increased the effectiveness of his stats, which meant it likely worked like his Mark of the Ambitious Hunter.

Was it because he had reached some level of understanding of how the Mark did its damage? Was it because he had killed a D-grade while only in E-grade himself with his long-range archery? Was it because he used a plethora of different skills besides usual archery?

It even mentioned using magic to enhance his archery… did he really do that? Infused Powershot was technically magic… so was Blood of the Malefic Viper if you thought a bit about it. The arrows generated from Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter to be used against the Storm Elemental also clearly carried elements of his mana control, and he doubted it would be as strong as it was if he hadn’t practiced mana manipulations and making those mana bolts as much as he had.

The usage of the word ‘vast’ was also weird. Why not distant horizons? Sure, one could argue that vast included distance, but it also included breadth. Was it talking about how diverse his archery was?

He had to admit it wasn’t just regular archery anymore… even from a post-system perspective. He actively integrated Gaze of the Apex Hunter to strike harder, used arrows highly reliant on his abilities as a mana-user and everything from his profession.

Jake stood in thought as he considered the skill. Ultimately it was just a straight-up upgrade, so it was good, and now his perception would prove even more useful. Especially the first strike with Infused Powershot would be stronger… because he really needed it to be.

Closing his system menus in satisfaction, he felt like he was forgetting something. Turning his gaze towards the cloud continent, he saw that the birds were all gathering towards where he killed the Storm Elemental, almost as if they were searching for som-

“SHIT! THE ORB!” Jake yelled out loud as he took flight towards the island. Damn you, fortunate skill upgrade, for distracting me!

He was flying desperately forward as he tried to keep an eye on what was happening in the distance. He saw the birds chase a Lightning Roc that had stolen it, but soon a group of Flare Crows attacked it and managed to burn it before one of the large vultures dove in, smashing its talons into the Lightning Roc.

Jake just kept flapping his wings as he tried to get closer. He tried to use Gaze of the Apex Hunter once in a while to try and stop the bird that he assumed had the Orb as he got closer at a pace far slower than he would have liked.

Miranda sat in the newly constructed longhouse with Hank, Neil with his party, and a few of Abby’s former goons.

The last few days had been very fruitful for the city with the influx of 50 or so new citizens. Granted, it was a bit skewed on the gender-ratio with only five women in total: herself, Eleanor, Christen, Louise, and the scarred woman.

of the people inside the house currently as they discussed

it’s safe to make contact?” Miranda

night to try and enter the fort, but they were all killed,” the woman explained. “We quite frankly don’t know anything about them… but they were struggling

as she

who had spent nearly a month wandering to chase Neil and his friends had proven quite valuable. They had seen many sights on their travels and had

the forest, a total of 130 or so kilometers, a large settlement was called ‘the fort.’ The reason for that was simple, as

of humans to group up in one place also presented challenges. Ignoring all the usual difficulties of running a functional settlement, they

was the best hunting ground and served as a beacon to attract experience-hungry beasts. It did raise the issue of why no beast ever dared enter the area of their

was the Pylon’s

were currently trying to determine if they should contact the fort and possibly offer them to come to the forest with them. But there were many risks and unknown factors associated with that, and they quite frankly didn’t feel comfortable making

weren’t even 60 people. And while Neil and his party were powerful, they didn’t believe that they could

Intuition skill had recently upgraded to rare-rarity and become more specialized towards city management. Annoyingly so, it included better knowing the owner’s intent, yet it didn’t do jack shit

lead in the project. The man was growing in levels quite fast and seemed to

than happy for them to do that. And the

the lodge in it would be entirely off-limits for anyone but the owner himself and Miranda when she needed to contact him. Miranda still remembered that he disliked people staring at him while he worked, and she had a strong feeling that he would like his privacy. It was not because

Pylon of Civilization’s domain. They only built to the south side, away from the

circular area? No, not at all, but it wasn’t like they needed space. With less than 60 people total, they had only managed to create two wooden structures in the new ‘city’ so far. One of them was the

be a second longhouse. The longhouses were large enough to house dozens, and they wanted one for men and one for women.

left most trees standing, making everything

the members of those who had been forced into helping Abby. After her death, her leadership profession’s effect faded, and a lot of the suppressed mental strain came forth. The

to deal with

things they had done and wrongs they had committed, as well as confirming that they

thoughts towards the owner… but

them even considered for a second to think badly of him. The reason was that he had killed Abby… but not exactly as one would

that allowed her to crush anything. Consciously or

a weak little girl. Instead of bringing her down from her pedestal to their level, in their minds, they had just seen an even larger pinnacle crushing her. All of their fear and – as much as they hated to admit it – respect of her power had been amplified and transferred to

that they worked with almost fanatical intent to help Hank build, and they seemed almost fearful in front of Miranda… the only different one was the scarred woman. Maybe because she had broken out of the spell long

and then if we can convince him to help us, we make contact with the fort?” Miranda asked, summing up their circular discussion, always coming back to

dismissed them from their small meeting. Hank already knew what to do when it came to building things, and Neil and his comrades were also working hard on their respective professions these days. They all appeared to enjoy the downtime

that they would soon like to go out hunting. Something they didn’t really feel comfortable doing before